Taking Shape

We are at a point now in our stay in Chiang Mai where things are slowly starting to take shape. Tomorrow (Thursday) Kalya and I are meeting with the Garden of Hope leaders at their children drop-in center to see what their ministry is about and what future possibilities there would be for some volunteer work. This was exciting news for us. I know that Kalya is really looking forward to begin checking into the possibilities. For a while it seemed like we wouldn't be able to have some of these meetings but it seems that persistence is a virtue and now the meetings will be taking place. Next Tuesday in the morning we will be meeting with leaders of New Life Center. Both of these ministries are working with children who are being rescued from child trafficking and in many cases trafficking in the sex trade. Kalya will be so good with these kids and we are very excited to see what the future might hold volunteering with one or more of these groups. Our stay is so short this summer that we can only really do fact finding and pray for the Lord's leading about where to volunteer if we should move here in the future. There is, understandably, an application process to go through to work with these groups of at least 3 months before you would begin working with the organization. We totally respect that for the safety and care of the children. So, while things were looking difficult to set up, all of a sudden the doors were opened to meet with the leadership of these groups. Praise God and pray for our ears to be open to His leading.

Also, next Tuesday in the afternoon, I have a scheduled meeting with the President of Payap University to discuss a possible future here in the College of Music. The teaching here has been going very well with very positive comments coming back from the students in the Jazz Improv workshops that I have been doing. The private teaching (percussion, and jazz improv) has been sort of hit and miss. One thing about Thai students is that they are not as punctual as you might expect at this level of education. That will take some getting used to for sure. Classes either start somewhat late or, as the case was today, I will show up to my office only to find out that there is a note on the door saying that so and so is unable to come for their lesson today. I know a lot of that has to do with my being a guest here and the students having to schedule time with me around their actual schedule. So . . . Mai pben rai (no worries).

I was speaking with the Dean of the College of Music the other night and discovered that the responsibilities of the faculty are divided into 4 categories: Student Life, Community Service, Staff Development (e.g.writing papers, giving recitals), and Teaching Classes. Yesterday I did some community service and went with Ajarn Wassunchai to play at the Hospital in the patients' waiting room. It was fun. He played piano and I brought a snare drum in and played some brushes on the drum with him. Next week his son will join us on Saxophone. Jam, his son, is a senior at Payap University in the College of Music and is very talented and a really great kid. It has been fun working with him. There is a core group of students in the Jazz Workshop that I am really beginning to warm up to and starting to build some relationships. The building of those relationships takes time, especially with the language barrier, but it is so worth the time and effort to try to build up their confidence and let them know that we can have a lot of fun (sanook mak mak) being and playing music together.

Next week I will start some language tutoring 3 days a week for one hour each day. I am looking forward to that. I am doing much better but sometimes my brain just shuts down and things I thought I knew don't come back quickly enough. One of the best experiences with the language issue was last week when I went to lunch. All of the tables were full but there were two part time workers from the College of Music that recognized me and asked me to join them. They spoke about as much English (actually a little more) as I spoke Thai. But, you know what?, we communicated and it was a really great meal together.

As we enter our 5th week here, I know that we will have a lot to think about and I know that it will be hard to think about many of the choices that lay before us. At the same time, it's when we make choices that our story unfolds. We pray that our story will be honoring to God and His plan for our future.

Bryan